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Train cleaners on strike today over pay and conditions

Cleaners on four major rail cleaning contracts are today on strike in separate disputes over pay and conditions.

The action by RMT members will hit services on London Midland operating out of the Bletchley and Northampton depots, East Coast mainline, the Transpennine Express and the Tyne and Wear Metro.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Each one of these four separate disputes has the same issue at its core – greedy private contractors who seek to exploit their workforce and offer poverty pay while creaming off fat profits for the company shareholders.

“These are all long-running disputes where the train operators and the Metro authorities have sought to wash their hands of the issue and have refused to take any responsibility for the gross and brutal exploitation of cleaners that is taking place on their watch.

“RMT is committed to a national fight to both expose the reality of the profiteering on our transport services that bullies and exploits the cleaners and also to securing living wages that keep pace with the true cost of living.

“All of these individual companies know that RMT members are determined to push on with the fight for pay and workplace justice and that they have shown rock-solid solidarity on previous strike days. The train operators and Metro authorities who give a green light to exploitation by these parasites should be using their clout to force them back to the negotiating table.”